“We really believe that it’s time to stop othering women by size,” Waldman said at a recent live taping of the podcast.

And according to Veksler, the two founders “absolutely see ourselves as having a role” in the wage-gap fight.

While the national conversation around gender equality has focused significantly on how women’s wages compare with those of their male colleagues, recent studies have also brought attention to the plight of heavier women in the workforce.

According to one study, published in 2016 in the medical journal The BMJ and touted in a viral New York Times blog post, a 4.6-point increase in women’s body mass index resulted in $4,200 less in annual income.

For the executives at Universal Standard, which bills itself as “size-inclusive” with plans to expand its clothing lines to smaller women, their mission is a personal one.

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“You can say what you want about your abilities, but quite often, you won’t even have the chance to show your abilities because someone will have presumed certain things about you,” Waldman said. “You’re perceived as less capable. You’re perceived maybe as more slovenly.”

“What we want to do is to level the playing field a little bit,” she said, “and take that obstacle out of your way so that you can walk into any room, be it a meeting room or a boardroom, whatever it is, and feel completely on par with the other people there.”

To hear more from Veksler and Waldman about how they built a business from scratch, attracted investors and tried to revolutionize the fashion industry, listen to the full podcast here. Women Rule takes listeners backstage with female bosses for real talk on how they made it and what advice they have for women looking to lead.